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ArenaNet ceases Guild Wars 1 live development, automates game
Guild Wars 1 has seen the end of an era of live development today, as ArenaNet stated that it is switching the game over to automation. The studio said that players should not expect any further content other than the systems being put into place to keep the game running on auto-pilot for the foreseeable future. "Over time, our focus has shifted to updates that not only help maintain Guild Wars but help the game maintain itself," ArenaNet posted. "With this focus in mind, we'll no longer be releasing any new content for the live game except in support of automation. Our goal is to get the game to a place where it can continue to run and be available to all of our fans. We have a lot of love for Guild Wars -- it's the game that made us what we are today -- and we want to continue sharing it with everyone!" Tournaments, events, and birthday prizes will be moved over to automation during this transition. The studio said that automating the game will keep it running longer and that it will keep a live team on Guild Wars to handle critical fixes and troubleshooting.
ArenaNet's plans for supporting Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 has been live for more than a month. Now that ArenaNet has more or less dealt with initial problems like server stability, absurd imbalance, and exploits, the company can start looking forward. ArenaNet devs have long talked about providing new content and huge support for the game, and a blog post this morning details some of their plans for that. ArenaNet has "formed multiple live teams focused on expanding Guild Wars 2 in the long term." So what are those teams, and what do they do? The Live Security team is all about cracking down on bots, spammers, and scammers. The Live Response team is made up of the fine folks addressing balance issues and bugs. The Living World focuses on adding new content and rewards for PvE and WvW. There's a PvP and Esports team focused on making Guild Wars 2 the best PvP game it can be. Holidays and Events have their own special team, dedicated to keeping up the Guild Wars legacy of amazing holiday content. In addition, the Holidays and Events team will be creating one-off events that occur in the world. The Mac and Performance team is working on getting Guild Wars 2 to run on the widest possible range of hardware. Bonus teams will take care of any projects that don't fall in the direct domain of other teams. Last but not least, the Commerce team will be keeping an eye on the Guild Wars 2 economy and thinking up new goodies for the Black Lion Trading Company. Hit up the full post for all the gory details.
The Emperor is stuck in a queue? BioWare shall redouble its efforts!
Is it a wonderful problem to have when your MMO is so popular that everyone trying to crush through the door at the same time is causing painful queues? Or is it a problematic wonder? Either way, the BioWare live team has been struggling to keep up with demand for Star Wars: The Old Republic access -- but the team may be getting closer to winning the war on wait time. BioWare's Greg Zeschuk stopped by the forums to assure players that the company is "redoubling its efforts" in tackling the issue. As a result, players should already be seeing quicker access to SWTOR: We've also being doing our best to get every little bit of possible performance on our servers to increase capacity: We've "turned them up to 11" to do our very best to get you in and playing as quickly as possible. As a result - you should now be seeing significant improvement versus waiting times at the end of last week. The team is also working on a way to hold players' places in the wait queue in the event of a disconnect.
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The former dev
I've been a long-time follower of Eric Heimburg on his blog, Elder Game, where he and a friend have spent years delivering insightful commentary about MMOs and supermodels (well, mostly MMOs). Because I'm not that observant a fellow and I assume that most fellow bloggers are mere players like I am, I didn't realize until a little while ago that he and his co-writer were former Turbine developers who had worked on Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2. You can see where this is going. Once I learned that, I knew I had to get him to contribute to this series. I began a multi-year wooing campaign that involved skywriting, cupcakes, celebrity kiss-o-grams, envelopes stuffed with unmarked bills, and all the tea in China. Of course, this was well after he'd already said "yes" to it, but I like to keep up appearances. So hit the jump as I talk to a guy who was on the flipside of Asheron's Call 2 as a producer and generally swell fella!
Linsey Murdock stepping down from ArenaNet Live Team
If you're a Guild Wars fan, the Live Team is a group you're probably very familiar with. They're the main minds behind Guild Wars, the primary development team. Linsey Murdock has been the Live Team's leader for quite a while, so it was a bit of a surprise when she announced today that she is stepping down from the position. She'll be passing the torch to designer John Stumme, and they each took a little bit of time to say a few words on the change. Don't wave goodbye to Linsey just yet, she's not leaving ArenaNet. She'll be taking a different position within the company instead. If you want to know what it is, you'll have to wait a bit, says Linsey -- she can't talk about it quite yet. Check out the ArenaNet blog to see what John and Linsey have to say about the switch.
PAX 2009: ArenaNet offers a variety of videos for fans at home
While we've brought you all manner of tasty insights and asides into what happened at PAX 2009 this year, there's something to be said for being able to catch the panels yourself. Knowing full well that their fans were going to go completely berserk when they heard all the juicy details about Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet has gone to great lengths to make sure to record all of their panels at PAX 2009 for you to check out. How awesome is that? The topics for this year were two completely different question and answer panels on the Art of Guild Wars 2, an insightful talk with the Guild Wars Live team who currently take care of the game, and a really interesting panel on the Fall of Ascalon novel that will give us the backstory between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. So if you weren't able to make it, be sure to check out the other half of the above lore video behind the jump, then head over to ArenaNet's official video channel to enjoy the rest!
Is WoW being run by its B-team? Is that bad?
This post by Eric Heimburg on the excellent MMO design blog Elder Game, alleging that WoW is currently run by Blizzard's B-team, has ignited a fair amount of controversy around the blogosphere. The general argument appears to be that the people previously in charge of WoW, like Jeff Kaplan, have moved on to other projects. As a consequence knee-jerk changes are being pushed through very fast, without being sufficiently tested first. "Back in the day," claims the article, "QA held the game to a higher standard." My reaction to these claims are mixed. Kaplan may not be in charge of WoW anymore, but I don't think that "the steady hand has left the rudder," or if it has, maybe a less straight-ahead course is a good thing. Changes may be getting pushed through very quickly - Ghostcrawler routinely refers to players getting whiplash from the frequency of balance changes - but in many cases, I think this is for the best.
GDC08: BioWare's last Neverwinter Nights patch, live team explained
Earlier today Derek French, a member of the Live Team at BioWare, gave a talk on the process of supporting the company's hit roleplaying games. He explained what exactly a Live team is, and marked some of the BioWare success stories that can be tracked back to that group; initiatives like the Premium modules were developed entirely in this little-known area of the company. He also hinted at some fascinating future plans for the team, like the potential of an interactive website not unlike the World of Warcraft 'Armory' site.In the process of talking about the team, French offhandedly mentioned the end of an era. The upcoming patch to the original Neverwinter Nights game, 1.69, will be the last the company releases. After seven years of tweaks and corrections, official support will be ending for this venerable game title. Beta patch notes for the 1.69 patch are available on the official forums. Though this is hardly news for the vibrant community still playing this game, it's worth noting the passage of one of BioWare's landmark titles. Read on for more on the BioWare Live team - including a lesson in why you should never post to forums angry.
